High school players have a message for the NCAA: Don’t block our shot!

With the NCAA debating whether to prohibit freshmen from playing Division I basketball, some of the nation’s top high school basketball players are crying foul about the possibility of sitting on the bench for their first year of college.

The NCAA feels that abolishing freshmen eligibility [they’d still be allowed to practice with the team] could ease the transition for students from high school to college, giving them more study time.

But if the rule goes into effect, some of the top players at the ABCD Camp (a four-day tournament featuring some of the nation’s top talent) at Fairleigh Dickinson in Teaneck complained yesterday it would be grossly unfair.

Instead of being encouraged to attend classes, some of the players expect it would inspire a mass exodus of high school seniors to the NBA.

“No doubt, I’d make the jump [to the NBA],” said the 6-foot-9 Houston native Alton Ford Jr., who has committed to play for the University of Houston after his upcoming senior season. “It wouldn’t make sense to sit out a year to play college ball.”

Said Jonathan Sanders, a 6-7 rising senior, who is considering Kansas, Notre Dame and UCLA: “I would try and go to the pros. And if I didn’t make it I’d try to become a doctor like I want to be. My grades are good enough to get into college.”

Sanders, who lives in Westminster, Colo., said freshmen “learn to grow quicker” by having to balance schoolwork and basketball. He promised that many high school seniors won’t want to spend more time in a library than a gym.

“It’ll force more kids to go straight to the pros,” Sanders said. “No kid would want to go a year without playing.”

Wally Renfro, the director of public relations for the NCAA, said the NCAA Basketball Issues Working Group, which includes college presidents, coaches, faculty and conference commissioners, is considering banning freshman eligibility based on the low graduation rate of basketball players compared to other student athletes, as well as the increasing number of players leaving early for the NBA.

Renfro said that in a 1998 study, the class of basketball players entering school in ’91 were found to have a 41 percent graduation rate, compared to student athletes in all sports which had a 57 percent graduation rate.

“The benefit [of ending freshman eligibility] is that you have freshmen being able to acclimate to a significantly harder [classwork] regimen,” Renfro said.

Renfro said that the committee discussing this situation will meet on July 19th and 20th. If it votes to ban freshmen, the rule would then have to pass through the NCAA legislature. If that happens, the rule could go into effect within two to three years, Renfro said.

Before the NCAA began to permit freshmen to play on the varsity in 1973, first-year players were relegated to the junior varsity. One of those players was Lew Alcindor, who led the UCLA JV to a stunning 16-point victory against the two-time national-champion UCLA varsity in the fall of 1965.

Twenty-six years after freshmen received eligibility, Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian doesn’t believe that the NCAA will vote to change the rule for fear of being sued by incoming freshmen.

Tarkanian added that he used to think freshman should be barred from competing, but has since changed his mind in the past few years.

“There are too many [freshman] kids making an impact,” Tarkanian said.

Ron Naclerio, the coach at Cardozo High in Queens, said the NCAA would be prejudiced to keep all freshmen from playing.

“The majority of the kids can handle extracurricular [basketball] and school,” Naclerio said. “Why are you penalizing them?”